The post-convention poll bounces are over, for both candidates, and the race for president has settled into a fairly competitive contest.

On August 12, the USC Dornsife-LA Times poll had the race within the margin of error, with Hillary Clinton at 44 percent and Donald Trump at 43 percent nationally. By August 15, it is at 45.6 percent to 42 percent in favor of Clinton.

Trump still leads among seniors, with a 48 percent to 46 percent lead. And males, 47 percent to 42 percent. Clinton leads similarly albeit wider among women and younger Americans. Trump still leads with no college and some college, 48 percent to 42 percent, and 45 percent to 41 percent, respectively. Watch these numbers closely, as they could prove to be a critical factor come Election Day when it comes to turnout.

Still, the race on whole is fairly close. Close enough to eventually flip. Trump appears to be hitting the demographics he needs to win, but he must press his advantage.

Clinton of course is notorious for not finishing off her opponents in presidential races. She couldn’t put away Barack Obama in 2008. And only by the grace of DNC superdelegates — and more than a little help from national party leaders — did she beat Bernie Sanders in 2016.

Now faced with a Republican candidate in Donald Trump who nobody gave any chance of winning the nomination, let alone the general election — who seemingly creates new, shocking headlines on a daily basis that would cause any other candidate to self-destruct — and once again Clinton cannot seem to finish the job.

After the Khan episode and even the Second Amendment stand Trump has taken, all the smart people in the room have once again declared the race to be over — even though not a single vote has been cast.

Yes, Clinton got a bounce out of her convention. But so did Trump out of the Republican convention in Cleveland. Now, the race is evening out headed into September and the debates.

But why hasn’t Clinton put Trump away?

The fact is, it’s still too early to declare the race is over. Trump is fond of noting that he has not spent any money on television ads yet, even though his opponent has spent hundreds of millions of dollars against him. And still, the race is tight.

Trump appears to be keeping his powder dry, apparently for the fall, when the debates will happen and then the final sprint to Election Day in November.

If we get through August and the race still appears to be tight, the questions will begin to circle on Clinton and why she underperforming — not on Trump, who everyone has already been told is finished and cannot win.

The American people like an underdog. And so far, thanks in no small part to the media’s narrative to count Trump out the race, he has been successfully cast into that role.

Trump’s path is there. But to get there, he needs to expand his leads with older Americans, males and those disaffected by the weak economy, particularly those without college degrees. Talking on security, law and order and promising new jobs and expanding industries helps, and Trump can narrow Clinton’s lead among the wealthy with a supply side, low-tax message.

So much of today’s politics is about building expectations, where one side attempts to dispirit the other with a spate of negative news cycles and the like.

But one thing we’ve learned in 2016 is that voters appear to be in a mood to shatter those expectations. This could be a change election year. Clinton is not inevitable.

Time will tell if it ultimately benefits Trump at the ballot box, but prognosticators declaring the race now finished should remember Yogi Berra’s old adage, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

This is a guest post by Robert Romano senior editor of Americans for Limited Government.

“But to get there, he (Trump) needs to expand his leads with older Americans, males and those disaffected by the weak economy, particularly those without college degrees.”
1. Older Americans remember their youth when they could get a living wage job and expand their opportunities with a company as their knowledge accumulated with experience. No certification required to get your foot in the door, just a willingness to work hard.
2. Males, even those with expensive college degrees, are increasingly standing in line with high school graduates applying for the same minimum wage service sector jobs as the degreed professional jobs are now following our former manufacturing jobs to low wage foreign shores. A gift to corporate job exporters in this country who can provide those services to America using foreign educated low wage employees working over the Internet.
3. Many college graduates have become aware of the scam that many of America’s prestige’s universities participated in when they made deals with China, India, and various other low wage countries to set up foreign campuses and educate their people to compete against the same American students that they had bilked out of thousands of Dollars, driving down professional wages here and there ! A blizzard of H1B work visas that the government has blessed are accelerating the devaluation of professional degrees obtained in this country as they drive down professional salaries in this country. Silicon Valley pushed hard for these government approved legal instruments that are further diminishing opportunities for American graduates suffering from horrendous student loan debt.
No mystery as to why many independent economist in this country have been predicting a fall to third world status in this country over the next ten to fifteen years. $19 Trillion in debt and a Congress that is falling over itself to pass additional Billion Dollar Supplementary Military Spending Legislation to fund additional foreign armed adventures as the social fabric of this country is literally being ripped to pieces ! Trump contributed nothing to this downfall. however eight years of Obama with Hillary Clinton’s assistance did !

Richard Bagenstose

well it’s simple you have hillary the con trying to paint trump as a con , she stole her money by selling us out to the highest bidder , at least trump made his the old fashion way , earning it, it takes money to make money and that is what trump did , hillary makes money by selling government favors to the rich, and the really cool thing , hillary donated 10% of there income to charity last year . 1.3 million dollars and guess what charity they donated it to, that’s right the clinton foundation , put the money right back into there money laundering org. if that’s not a con i don’t know what is